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Biblical Faith and Radical Humanity
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God isn’t primarily concerned with superficial piety.
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True biblical faith, according to Raymond Carr, is about being radically human.
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This includes God and religious practices, but they must be properly situated.
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Serving the Lord matters only if it’s oriented correctly, within a relationship with God.
Empty prayers and loud songs without a genuine connection to God offer no salvation or blessing.
Patrick Boatwright
It turns out the Lord, he’s honestly not that concerned with piety. There’s a quote you’ve heard around here, if you’ve been around enough. It’s from a dear friend of mine, Raymond Carr. And he says that biblical faith is not about being religious, but about being radically human. Biblical faith is not about being religious, but about being radically human. But being human includes God and the religious things you do properly situated. Which is to say the ways in which we serve the Lord do matter, but only in as much as they’re oriented correctly. There is no salvation in empty prayers. There is-
Saul’s Downfall
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After God rejects Saul as king, Saul becomes desperate, confessing his sin.
However, he prioritizes his image, pleading with Samuel for respect before the elders, revealing his true god: the approval of people.
Patrick Boatwright
And there’s this tragic scene after Samuel makes this pronouncement where Saul grabs his cloak. He’s now become desperate. God has rejected me as king and Saul says, I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. This is what he says. I was afraid of the men, and so I gave in to them. He says this before, and then he comes back, and he says again, the Lord, Samuel turns to him and says, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your Neighbors, to one better than you. He who is the glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not a human being that he should change his mind. And again, Saul says, I have sinned. What does he want? Is it forgiveness that he wants? Is it mercy that he asks for? No. Please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel. Amen. For Saul, what matters is the likes and the followers. Even in the face of losing everything that was given to him by the God that called him he yields and pleads for the mercy of his true God the approval of people But Samuel says,What does it mean to scale ourselves? If the goal is to better represent ourselves in others’ eyes — to build reputation, to make a living — then the work becomes performance for external validation rather than intrinsic growth. Scaling reputation isn’t the same as scaling depth. capture externalvalidation-
Chernobyl Anecdote
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Patrick Boatwright uses Chernobyl (1986) to illustrate how consequences can take time.
Decades before, shortcuts in design led to the meltdown, impacting even Sweden’s rain.
Patrick Boatwright
I was born in 1986, and that was also the year that in Ukraine, this nuclear site named Chernobyl melted down. Because decades before, when they were designing this, they cut corners on the rods and how they stored and heated the uranium that was being stored there. And so, decades later, we have a nuclear meltdown, radically destroys thousands of acres of land. And literally, in Sweden, the rain becomes radioactive. It takes a while for consequences to come full, when they do they touch anything and everything because that’s how choices work they create ripples-
Saul’s Disobedience
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Saul stopped listening to God and God stopped speaking to him.
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Years after seeking divination instead of listening to God, he faces a losing battle.
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He consults a medium who relays a message from Samuel that Saul will soon die.
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The next day, Saul’s sons are killed and he is critically wounded, so he asks his armor-bearer to run him through, but he refuses.
Saul and his armor-bearer take their own lives.
Patrick Boatwright
It turns out, you stop listening, the Lord stops speaking. And so Saul, remember that sin? What is a sin akin of not listening? It’s to seek divination, to search for signs and crystals and sorcerers. And so what does Saul find himself doing some 20 years later? But going to a sorcerer, going to a medium to ask them to find and ask the spirits what he should do. And he gets an answer. Not of what he should do, but he gets a reply from a dear old friend he hasn’t talked to in some years, Samuel, who’s long past. This medium, possessed by the spirit of Samuel, relays this message. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, tomorrow you and your son shall be with me. So the next day, when Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malachishua, his sons, are dead, Saul is all alone, and the arrows are coming in, and one critically wounds him. The story, as it goes, says that Saul looked to his armor bearer. And he said, draw your sword and run me through. Or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer was terrified and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When the armor bearer saw-
Being Led Astray
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Saul’s leadership led to negative consequences, like starvation, for his followers.
In contrast, Jonathan, led by God, achieved victory despite facing similar battles.
Patrick Boatwright
But those were the choices his armor bearer made. His son, Jonathan. His son, Jonathan, was a man who sincerely loved the Lord. There’s a small story, this battle way, way earlier, where they’re in another battle and they’re fighting the Philistines, ironically enough. They’re fighting the Philistines and Jonathan, Jonathan under the direction of the Lord, leads out and starts the victory by himself. And it’s him, he takes down 20 men with his armor bearer. And the people, the Philistines are so shocked by this, they start fighting themselves. Because when you go where God calls you and when you do what God calls you to do, you will find yourself doing more than you could absolutely imagine or consider. In that same battle, Saul though had told the people not to eat honey. He had his men starve because he didn’t want a person to eat until he got his vengeance. So all these guys are coming in fasting and having to fight a battle, starving. Because when men lead you, you have to do more than you could ask or imagine.-
Authentic Leadership
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Patrick Boatwright discusses the temptation in leadership to maintain pretenses and hide vulnerabilities.
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He believes that true leadership involves revealing scars and wounds to show authenticity.
He aspires to a life where his actions demonstrate God’s power working through his weakness.
Patrick Boatwright
And oftentimes, oftentimes I’m tempted to do just enough to keep up pretenses. They say leadership is letting people down at a rate they can handle. When I read this story, I recognize that this, for me, that if I lead us in pretense, if my life is but pretense, if I cannot show you my scars and my wounds, And this will all be a facade. And this will all be hollow. And we really should have gone and gotten brunch. But instead, for me, I want to live a life I want to live a life not needing the likes or the followers, but finding joy even in the days that I’m weak, because in my weakness, you will see That I’m human, and when you see the things that I can do, you will have no choice but to know that there’s a God. The ways that I show up for you, yeah, that won’t be because of me. It will only be because there’s a spirit of God working through me. That, I hope, is what my lifeTechnology makes us look more capable, but the challenge is portraying the difficulty of what makes us human. The goal isn’t productivity metrics — it’s showing the insight and the pause: “Look how amazing that thought was, and I’m glad I stopped on it.” We don’t need perfect technologies; we need tools that meet us in our imperfection. ecology-of-technology-
Seeing God in Saul’s Failure
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Patrick Boatwright suggests that we see Jesus in Saul by recognizing where Jesus isn’t in Saul.
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Saul despised the Spirit of God, while Jesus delighted in it.
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Saul was disobedient, even to the point of death, always trying to do things his way.
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Jesus, in contrast, was obedient to death, offering his life for others.
Saul’s disobedience led to death for his followers, while Jesus’s death led to life for all who follow him.
Patrick Boatwright
And here’s where I see Jesus in this story. I see Jesus in Saul because I don’t see Jesus in Saul. See, Saul is a king that despises the spirit of God. And Jesus was a king that delighted in it. Saul was disobedient to the point of death, constantly trying to do things his way, and Jesus was willing to die in obedience. Saul’s death out of his disobedience meant permanent death for his followers, but Jesus’ death led to not only his life, but the life for all those who follow after him. Jesus is a better king Jesus is a better king. Alright. We’re going to enter a little time of questions because, I mean, that’s just kind of what you do when you hear a story. You make space for questions.Mimetic engineering optimizes for engagement and replication — external validation as the metric. Technology that actually empowers voices the hidden and aspirational: what we would tell ourselves if we had the capacity to influence our own direction without emotions derailing the effort. The difference is whether the tool serves complacency or growth. externalvalidation capture ecology-of-technology
